Decidedly Different Dursleys
by CycoMW
Summary: A short where Vernon changes rather dramatically one year before Harry turns up on his doorstep. Vernon's actions during Harry's early years and his first two years at Hogwarts covered in brief.


**Decidedly Different Dursleys**

* * *

**- Growing Up -**

* * *

It was a seemingly ordinary Wednesday when Vernon changed. The talk at work was that he must have eaten something strange at lunch or hit his head, maybe the stress of having a newborn at home triggered a kind of breakdown. What was certain was that an hour after returning from lunch there was a bang from his office. When his secretary, Patrice, checked she found him sitting stock still behind his desk and the contents of his desk scattered around the room. As she described it Mr Dursley seemed to be hundreds of miles away as he spoke and told her that he was going out for the rest of the day and to postpone his appointments.

He returned to work the next day and started implementing changes from the moment he stepped into the building. Within a week three staff had been arrested on charges of fraud. The inspectors were impressed with how quickly Mr Dursley had uncovered the details of the thefts, there was some concern that due to his indepth knowledge that he might have somehow been involved but the details of the case backed by the testimonies of the three convinced everyone that he hadn't. New staff were hired, new deals were made, buyouts of two competing companies and three related companies. Within a year Grunnings profits had soared and so too had the fortunes of the Dursleys.

_-DDD-_

Dudley Dursley was almost a year old when the Dursleys moved from Little Whinging to East Molesey. The house was a spectacular four bedroom, three bathroom riverside detached house with reception room, conservatory and extensive gardens. By this time the Vernon Dursley of a year ago was nowhere to be seen. The new Vernon Dursley had undergone a remarkable transformation. A series of expensive fitness instructors had taken him from an overweight beefy man into a heavily muscled beefy but healthy man. His stomach was half the size and though he still enjoyed a good drink it was now in moderation.

His wife, Petunia, had also undergone a significant transformation. A series of dieticians, beauticians and a very expensive series of visits to a plastic surgeon had improved her looks and self confidence significantly. Their one year old son was reaping the benefits of a professional child sitter and early educator. Still a dark cloud hovered over everything they did. Three expensive private investigators working simultaneously and hundreds of letters and phone calls had all failed to track down Petunia's sister.

Halloween was a somber affair that year. There was no news, no calls, but Vernon knew something bad was happening elsewhere and that there was nothing he could do about it. Two days later he opened the door just after a few unusual figures had vanished from his driveway. Shaking his head in disbelief he gently picked up the bundled baby on his front step and returned into his warm house. A moment later he re enabled his state of the art home burglar alarms.

_-DDD-_

Years passed and Dudley and Harry grew up into two fine strapping boys. Both received extensive and expensive tutoring and training. Vernon joined them for much of their training be it boxing, karate or sessions at the Surrey pistol and rifle club. The two boys fought occasionally but for the most part acted and played just like any two well adjusted brothers should.

After the occasional strange or unusual event Vernon would take the two boys and sit them down in his study, a very rare occurrence. Each time he would remind them that not everything in the world was understood or even meant to be. He would talk about each event and talk about the benefits of whatever happened and then after reminding them to be careful as there were many small minded individuals out there usher them out.

_-DDD-_

The day after Harry's seventh birthday Vernon took his two boys into his study and told them about the magical world and how Harry had inherited the ability and responsibilities from his parents. He encouraged Harry to begin trying to learn how to use his magic and Dudley to support and look after him. He also made a promise to try and take Harry to a place where they could purchase books after his eighth birthday.

The year passed and whilst Harry learnt a few little magical tricks he was disappointed he couldn't do more. Vernon and Dudley however continued to tell him he was doing amazingly well and would only do better once he had books about it

_-DDD-_

The day after Harry's eighth birthday Vernon took him into London to seek out the infamous Diagon Alley. Dudley was disappointed though understanding of the reasons why he couldn't go that time. They all hoped that they would be able to go the next time.

Vernon and Harry wore old style suits purchased from a costume shop as they walked the streets towards the Leaky Cauldron. He carried a number of wrapped boxes and hoped they gave the impression they were on the way to a fancy dress party. He was almost grateful when Harry spotted and then led him into the strangely unnoticeable bar.

Concealing his nervousness he quietly asked the bartender to open the way to Diagon Alley. Once in he took a series of deep breaths before he put on his best act and led Harry to Gringotts where he anonymously changed a large quantity of pounds into wizarding money. Then after a quick stop to pick up an enchanted book satchel they purchased many more books than should have fitted into said satchel. All in all the whole visit took an hour and a half all though which Vernon's heart was beating like a speeding train.

Though wishing he could stop for a pint somewhere that wasn't the Leaky Cauldron Vernon took Harry straight back to the car and drove him home pausing only to wipe the makeup off Harry's forehead. At home he quickly congratulated Harry on a job well done before fleeing to his study and the whiskey within.

_-DDD-_

Harry was happy to have material to study but was disappointed to discover that for most of the practical exercises he required a wand. Still he diligently learned all the wand movements with cut down curtain rods, practiced and undertook tutoring in Latin and phonetic pronunciation, memorised and was tested by Dudley on the various plants, creatures, potions and spells described in the books. Followed his Uncle's advice he also spent at least an hour a day practicing all the Occlumency exercises that he could understand.

Six months later Vernon took Harry back. He made a firm promise to take Dudley the next time if nothing went wrong with this visit. Dudley was pleased to hear that they had gone in, bought more books, and left without notice or incident.

_-DDD-_

After Harry turned nine Vernon followed through with his promise and took Dudley along with them. Dudley was even allowed to choose a couple of book from the bookshop. Both boys would have loved to explore the alley but they knew that when Vernon said that it was the bookshop and back that he would brook no argument.

Vernon soon decided his boys were both mature enough and introduced them to street fighting where they also received training in knives and makeshift weapons. Their yearly camping trips took on another aspect when he added survival training. Each time the courses and trainers were the best available.

Vernon by this time owned a large number of businesses and many properties, some rather nicer than their riverside property but he refused to move from that house. Harry didn't mind, just like Dudley he has his own room, study and small bathroom. There was now also a well equipped gym, a large swimming pool and extensive gardens to wander and relax in.

_-DDD-_

At age ten Vernon introduced Dudley and Harry to his highly illegal collection of guns. He explained about dark wizards, pointed out the logical inconsistencies in the tales of the defeat of the last Dark Lord. Had them trained in how to deal with all sorts of emergencies, how to access the weapons and how to defend themselves and the family.

He added a second security guard, also ex-military to his household staff, updated his security systems to the lastest as they became available and added security screens and even had a small shelter with escape tunnel created under the house. All very expensive but it made little dent on Vernon's wealth which had continued to grow at an unprecedented rate. Vernon now owned shares in businesses across the world. He sold up before dips in the market and reinvested just before markets recovered. He invested big in companies months before those companies announced new technologies or discoveries. Nine out of ten times his risky investments paid off handsomely.

Vernon was rich, confident, healthy, loved his two boys and if it wasn't for magic would have been the happiest man in the world. Still he had made a deal and he would stick to it. Harry was a wizard and he would support him as best as he could.

* * *

**- 1st Year-**

* * *

Vernon sent a request to meet with Minerva McGonagall in reply to the first letter Harry received. She arrived that afternoon and proceeded to prove the existence of magic. Vernon showed polite disbelief then grudgingly allows an ecstatic Harry to accompany her to Diagon Alley. Vernon and Petunia refused the offer to accompany him.

A very happy Harry returned with school books, trunks, supplies and his wand and was congratulated by Vernon on a part well played. Three days later Vernon and Harry return to Diagon Alley, this time Harry was wearing his coloured contacts, makeup, wig, hat and old style clothing.

They spent hours with the goblins and by the end Vernon, Harry and the goblins were all of the opinion that much money was about to be made. After a quiet lunch in normal London Vernon and Harry returned for meetings with their newly appointed wizarding lawyers.

Two days later four wizards and a dozen goblins arrived under the cover of darkness and began installing ward stones at the Dursley's.

Three days later whilst work still continued at home Harry, Vernon and their lawyers arrived at the Ministry of Magic and spent half a day signing paperwork and answering questions. All extremely boring but essential. A very tired Harry went to bed very early that night.

_-DDD-_

September arrived and Harry Potter joined the crowds lining up for the Hogwart's express. In some ways he looked the part of the hero from the books. Well dressed, fit, confident. However unlike his father he didn't wear glasses and his hair was long and tied back with a piece of black leather. In one ear he wore a decorative silver earring that the observant mutter looked to be goblin made. A few people also caught the glint of a silver necklace under his robes.

Within months Harry had made waves. He led a study group that included members from all four houses and is predominantly made up of half bloods and muggleborns. He had put three fellow students in hospital and rather than been punished has forced their parents to offer public apologies and reparations for their offsprings insults to the heir of an ancient and noble family and those under his houses protection.

Vernon helped form an informal Hogwart's Parents Association. Many of the members soon find themselves being offered new positions in a number of Vernon's many business interests within both the muggle and wizarding world.

Come Halloween all anyone could talk about was the return of the dark lord. Stories conflict but most agree he-who-should-not-be-named attempted to possess one of the professors but when Harry Potter tried to offer assistance the dark lord cursed the professor and fled. The professor didn't survive the burning curse. A troll that the dark lord brought to the castle was soon dealt with by the staff without incident.

At Christmas a cheerful Harry returned home with invites to a dozen Christmas parties. Vernon choose two and arranged for a wizarding escort. The Dursleys also had their own private celebration of Christmas which everyone enjoyed immensely. They also attended a few high society events with Dudley whilst Harry was at his wizarding parties.

Harry was given a large number of presents but the most interesting was the return of his father's cloak, strangely enough presented as an anonymous gift. Vernon helped Harry come to the right conclusion about just who had been holding on to it.

_-DDD-_

Just after the new year Vernon took over a controlling interest in a gold exploration company that had been having financial woes. With the additional capital provided by Vernon they pushed into a few new territories and struck gold in the literal sense, discovering the second biggest concentration of gold that decade.

When Harry returned to Hogwarts he discovered that the replacement professor had been a friend of his father's. Not wasting the opportunity he took the initiative in getting to know the new professor.

A month later Harry and Hogwarts made the front page of the prophet. A practical joke gone bad had ended with the new defense professor discovering an animagus long presumed dead hiding as one of the students pets. Names of the student who owned the pet and those responsible for the practical joke were withhold but it was released the animagus was Peter Pettigrew, the wizard truly responsible for the death of Harry's parents. Sirius Black was granted his long awaited trial and released into medical care.

_-DDD-_

Three months of magical rehabilitation by the best potion masters and healers available left Sirius Black looking near normal. Some scars would never heal but few would believe that such a short time ago he was in the worst jail in the world. Harry was granted special permission to spend the day with the recently released Sirius at his guardians home. After a delicious lunch Sirius was surprised to be handed a carefully worded secrecy and loyalty oath to Harry Potter.

After only a brief perusal Sirius took the oath and Vernon spent the rest of the afternoon explaining many things that even Harry had only learnt recently. Plans were made and Sirius started the second stage of his rehabilitation. This time ex-auras, curse breakers and dueling masters were his coaches.

Harry returned to school and continued to study hard and help his fellow half bloods and muggleborns outperform everyone else in their year. A few careful words here and there and the second and third years of similar backgrounds woke to the fact that together they too could do better, especially with the resources Harry was able to provide to help those without a solid wizarding background catchup.

_-DDD-_

By the end of the school year Vernon's Hogwarts Parents Association had grown to include almost all parents of muggle borns or half bloods in the first three years and a scattering from the other years. Vernon was the official treasurer since he owned the building used for meetings and provided everything. Though he often sat in on the meetings and provided input in the writing of the agenda he rarely spoke during the meetings.

Harry did very well in his exams as had the rest of his study group. Harry had a great many new friends and plans to catch up with many of them during the break. Many of these same friends now had parents with business connections with his Uncle and magical protections provided by some of Harry's new magical security businesses, all of which were managed by Vernon.

Remus Lupin left his position at Hogwarts after some internal pressure and was employed by one of the magical security business, one that was jointly owned by Harry, Vernon and Sirius Black. His official position was that of specialist security consultant.

It was during the summer holidays that Sirius led a team of fifteen highly trained and dangerous looking wizards, ten goblins, Harry and Remus to an old hut in Little Hangleton. There they tore through a series of nasty wards, curses, traps to extract an ancient ring. Harry was praised on his use of parselmouth to assist with the curse breaking.

By the end of a most excellent Summer Harry was tanned, had visited a couple of islands, learnt to scuba dive and had seen the destruction of four horcruxes including that which inhabited the fragment of frozen magic in his scar. Sirius Black's old house had been cleared off it's curses, creatures and one ancient elf that had died happily after his last command from his previous master was completed. Gringotts had confiscated an entire vault for breach of contract in regard to soul magic with Harry and Vernon receiving a significant percentage for their assistance in discovering that breach of contract. Hogwart's was for the first time free of the curse that had been affecting the defense against the dark arts post.

Remus was not upset that it had been removed after he had already received his notice. His new position was allowing him to employ many other werewolves in similar roles to his own.

* * *

**- 2nd Year -**

* * *

When a house elf attempted to breach the wards at the Dursley residence Sirius and Remus were waiting. A surprised but happy Dobby returned to the Malfoy's safe in the knowledge that Harry's health was secure.

When the 1st of September arrived Harry and six other volunteers were at the station early to greet the first years and their parents. Business cards were discreetly handed out and the Hogwarts Parent's Association grew.

The only unusual event was when one of the first year students reported someone had stolen her new diary during the train ride. She remained upset about it for a surprisingly long time considering she admitted to only just recently starting writing in it.

_-DDD-_

It was during the second week of school that the Daily Prophet led with more amazing headlines. Harry Potter had successfully reached settlement with three different publishing houses and eight individual authors responsible for writing numerous fictional stories using his name without permission. Legal cases regarding over thirty other cases of other 'Harry Potter' products were still ongoing.

No sooner had whispers about it spread when four aura's arrived to take Gilderoy Lockhart away for questioning. In a partially related case it turned out he had been responsible for the use of various compulsion and memory charms to steal stories from a number of wizards.

_-DDD-_

During the year a spate of fire's occurred amongst the houses of pureblood wizards. An aspiring journalist pointed out that in each case the the target had been a wizard accused of being a death eater and acquitted due to being under the influence of the imperious. Each house set fire to with fiendfyre. When put out many obviously dark artifacts were found to be present amongst each of the ruins.

Excuses that the dark artifacts must have been planted fell on deaf ears and when offers to voluntary administer veristem were rejected a number of prominent death eaters found themselves being sent Azkaban. Soon after their incarceration a wave of new wizarding businesses were announced whilst a number of existing businesses announced there were expanding into new areas. It was unfortunate that many of the businesses that were most affected by these new threats were mostly headless with their owners locked away incommunicado.

_-DDD-_

Minister Fudge was the first to be indicted for corruption, Crouch, Umbridge and two dozen others like them soon followed. Progress cleaning up the Ministry slowed for a while after that before a spate of arrests hit the Wizengamot and its ancillaries.

At this time Vernon had started selling off his wizard holdings. Harry and Sirius were purchasing the lion's share but many others in the Parent's Association were offered and purchased shares in the businesses they were already involved in. Vernon had long made it clear that his interest in the wizarding economy was a temporary thing. He however continued to invest aggressively with Harry's inheritance.

_-DDD-_

Christmas was a truly joyous occasion. Sirius and Lupin took Harry on a tour of a number of magical villages throughout Europe including a number of rather nice beaches to work on their tan.

_-DDD-_

It was a team led by Remus Lupin and mostly consisting of werewolves that discovered the spirit of Voldemort inhabiting a great big snake. The snake proved to be resistant to most spells and fast enough to avoid the rest. After three of his team fell to poisonous bites Remus took a large risk and cast Fiendfyre at near point blank range. It cost him his right leg and a few toes of his left foot but he killed the snake, destroyed the last remains of Voldemort's spirit. His quick actions gave them enough time to save the three bitten. He called it a fair trade.

When the snake died Death Eaters everywhere collapsed and lost large parts of their magic. Some were reduced to squibs and a few died. Each death eater was left hideous scar a where the black mark had been. No one doubted that the Dark Lord was finally dead.

_-DDD-_

At the beginning of the Summer holidays second year at Hogwarts Harry was taken up to Vernon's study for a talk.

"Harry, my boy. It's time to tell you the full story about a promise I once made. The promise was tolook after you, to help you gain your rightful place and to prepare you for the wizarding world. The person I made that promise to was you Harry. I don't pretend to understand the magic involved but I remember a time when I was cruel and treated you terribly. You suffered greatly and nearly died many times, you survived but as great cost. As a young man you approached me, we didn't like each other, but you offered me a deal. A chance to improve my lot in life in exchange for helping a younger you. For reasons I won't go into I accepted and the older you was able to send my memories back in time. As I was promised I was able to use my future knowledge to make myself rich beyond my dreams and in exchange I did my best to look after to you knowing that one day I would be able to hand you over to your godfather. That day has come. The paperwork has been completed. But unlike what I once imagined I don't want this to be goodbye. I would like to keep in touch. I would like to be know you are happy. I have... I have come to love you Harry. My nephew."

-_-DDD-_

Harry moved in with Sirius. Many challenges still needed to be overcome, the Wizengamot had lost many of it's nastiest pureblood supremacists but it and the ministry were still predominantly run by purebloods. Dumbledore still held massive sway and for all his talk he as conservative as they came. Now however Harry, Sirius and their allies had massive financial power, were organised and not under threat from the greatest Dark Lord since Grindelwald. They might have lost their leader but they were not out of the fight.

* * *

**THE END**


End file.
